Sean Hanna responds to questions in race for state Senate

Assemblyman Sean Hanna, R-Mendon, and the Monroe County Legislature minority leader, Democrat Ted O’Brien, face off in a race for the newly-drawn 55th state Senate District. The district includes parts of Monroe and Ontario counties. In Ontario County, it covers eight towns: Victor, West Bloomfie...

By Julie Sherwood, staff writer

MPNnow

By Julie Sherwood, staff writer

Posted Nov. 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 1, 2012 at 1:15 AM

By Julie Sherwood, staff writer

Posted Nov. 1, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 1, 2012 at 1:15 AM

Victor, N.Y.

Assemblyman Sean Hanna

Q. What is most pressing issue facing your district and what will you do about it?

A. Jobs and taxes. In my short tenure in the legislature, I have fought to cut taxes on the small businesses and manufacturers that form the backbone of our economy. We must enable business to flourish by eliminating unnecessary and suffocating regulations. In the past two years, I reached across the aisle to close a $10 billion budget gap through spending cuts — not tax increases. We passed a property tax cap and cut income tax rates to the lowest levels in 58 years.

Q. What is the biggest difference between you and your opponent?

A. I don't answer to New York City politicians, and I don't accept support from special interests fighting to overturn the property tax cap. My opponent has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Albany and New York City special interests that have promised legal action and anything else necessary to vacate the property tax cap Gov. Cuomo and I implemented. In contrast, I have a record of cutting spending, cutting taxes, capping property taxes, and putting New York back on track. Gov. Cuomo described my first session in Albany as the most successful in modern political history.

Q. Should high-volume hydraulic fracturing be permitted in your district? If so, under what conditions?

A. Actually, there is no Marcellus Shale in the 55th Senate District; thus, there would be no 'fracking' here.

Q. What will you do to boost the economy and job market in your district?

A. First, I'll keep doing what I've been doing: cutting both spending and taxes. Additionally, we need to eliminate the unfunded mandates that help drive property taxes through the roof. Finally, we need to reign in the regulatory agencies that make life miserable for small companies.

Q. Despite the property-tax cap, New York is still rated one of the highest-taxed states nationwide. What will you do to fix it?

A. We still need to repeal the unfunded state mandates that prevent local governments from cutting their own levels of spending. I believe in a constitutional amendment banning all unfunded mandates. If state government deems a service to be so important that it must be mandated, that service must be sufficiently important to be funded by the state. If it is not, the mandate should be eliminated, and the localities should be free to provide it or not.